# How can I express \begin{minipage}{\linewidth-2ex}?

I am working on a poster template with a not so easy to reproduce style with nested blocks. To that end, I have to create a minipage whose width depends on \linewidth minus some fixed value. In a nutshell, I want to subtract something in the width specification of the minipage.

How can I express \linewidth "MINUS" 2ex in my template?

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Just load the calc package and use \linewidth-2ex; you probably mean -2em, though. –  egreg Mar 13 '13 at 12:38
Or precede it with \dimexpr: \begin{minipage}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2ex} –  Andrew Swann Mar 13 '13 at 12:46
@egreg: I didn't know about the calc package. This answers the question (hint). (Note: I did mean 2ex since it is determined by a different vertical margin.) –  bitmask Mar 13 '13 at 12:52

The calc package allows for expressing operations on dimensions in the argument to minipage, \parbox, \setlength and other places.

So, after \usepackage{calc}, you're allowed to say

\begin{minipage}{\linewidth-2ex}


Without any package the same can be accomplished by

\begin{minipage}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2ex\relax}


but calc is more powerful.

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